Interest in the sports of scuba diving and snorkeling continues to grow. Participation in these aquatic activities requires the enthusiast to utilize a wide range of equipment, often referred to as “gear”. This equipment includes a wet suit, hot skin, buoyancy compensator as well as other accessories such as diving gloves and boots.
Since these garments can be quite expensive, most divers purchasing it are highly motivated to see that their gear receives proper care at all times. In particular, proper care includes seeing that each piece is treated in the correct manner when left to dry after a dive. Drying scuba gear is preferably done by placing the pieces on individual hangers where the hangers have broad shoulder-like supports. The hangers are then suspended off the ground to allow water to fully drain from the gear and for air to reach all of its surface areas. In doing this, the risk of mold or mildew forming on the diving outfit can be reduced.
Hangers used to dry diving gear, like most clothes hangers, are shaped so that each piece can hang in a manner that avoids any unnecessary folds or creases in the material or fabric from which the garment is made. The broad shoulders of the hangers decrease the likelihood of the type of crease being created that can weaken and damage the material, thereby leading to tears or holes to this equipment.
Although the use of individual hangers to dry and store select pieces of scuba gear is well known, scuba divers would find highly desirable the ability to hang an entire scuba outfit, including large pieces the buoyancy compensator, from a single apparatus. Moreover, there has long been a need for a drying device that does not depend upon the presence of an overhead support, such as a beam or tree limb, from which to suspend the device and its hangers before it can be used. There are many occasions where the diver needs to dry his gear on the beach or in his hotel room and there is either no overhead support or one simply inadequate to handle the combined weight of the wet pieces of equipment hanging from it. This invention meets these needs and overcomes other problems and shortcomings in the prior art.